Related Resources • Home • 1. Introduction • 2. Fonts 101 -- A Quick Introduction to Fonts • 3. Fonts 102 -- Typography • 4. Making Fonts Available To X • 5. Making Fonts Available To Ghostscript • 6. True Type to Type 1 Conversion • 7. WYSIWYG Publishing and Fonts • 8. Netscape • 9. TeX / LaTeX • 10. Getting Fonts For Linux • 11. Useful Font Software for Linux • 12. Ethics and Licensing Issues Related to Type • 13. References • 14. Glossary

6.1. Why?

or perhaps the right question to ask is ``why not ?'' The typical Linux user has experienced a migration from Windows, and probably has an enormous collection of TrueType fonts. Many of these fonts ( eg those that ship with MS Word and Corel's products ) are of fairly good quality. However, some Linux applications, such as Star Office and LaTeX do not support TrueType fonts, but do support Type 1 fonts. update: it looks like Star Office can handle TrueType fonts, but I'm still trying to work out the details. At best, it involves some fairly gruesome hacks. This is a pity, because with ghostscript support for TrueType, and TrueType font servers, Linux has the infrastructure it needs to handle TrueType.

6.2. How?

To convert your TrueType fonts into Type 1 fonts, go to http://quadrant.netspace.net.au/ttf2pt1/ and get ttf2pt1. To convert a TrueType to a Type 1 font, use the following syntax:

ttf2pt1 -b file.ttf name

Where name is the name of the file corresponding to the new Type 1 font ( ie it's arbitrary. It's a good idea to make it the same as the ttf file. eg ttf2pt1 -b foo.ttf foo.

Well, that worked fine for one font. If we have a lot, we need a smarter way to do it. One can just just use a loop:

for X in *.ttf; do ttf2pt1 -b $X ${X%%.ttf}; done

Alternatively, you can download the ttfutils package and use ttf2type1 for the conversions.

ttf2type1 *.ttf

1. Introduction
    1.1. The Location of This Document
    1.2. Submitting corrections/errata
    1.3. Last Updated
    1.4. Copyright
    1.5. Rationale
    1.6. Credits and Acknowledgements
2. Fonts 101 -- A Quick Introduction to Fonts
    2.1. Types of Fonts
    2.2. Families of Typefaces
3. Fonts 102 -- Typography
    3.1. Classifications of Typefaces
    3.2. Ligatures, Small caps fonts and expert fonts
    3.3. Font Metrics and Shapes
4. Making Fonts Available To X
    4.1. The font path
    4.2. Installing Type 1 Fonts
    4.3. True Type Fonts
    4.4. xfs
5. Making Fonts Available To Ghostscript
    5.1. Type 1
    5.2. True Type
    5.3. Using Ghostscript To Preview Fonts
6. True Type to Type 1 Conversion
    6.1. Why ?
    6.2. How ?
7. WYSIWYG Publishing and Fonts
    7.1. Introduction and Overview
    7.2. Applixware
    7.3. Star Office
    7.4. Word Perfect
8. Netscape
9. TeX / LaTeX
    9.1. A Quick Primer on LaTeX/TeX fonts
    9.2. Adding Type 1 fonts
10. Getting Fonts For Linux
    10.1. True Type
    10.2. Type 1 Fonts and Metafont
11. Useful Font Software for Linux
12. Ethics and Licensing Issues Related to Type
13. References
    13.1. Font Information
    13.2. Postscript and Printing Information
14. Glossary

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